IBM enters Lucknow with SMB focus

BANGALORE: IBM India today announced its operations in Lucknow, as part of its expansion plans to enter 14 new cities in the country, in line with its strategy to make India a truly global hub. This would enable IBM to cater specially to the unique requirements of the various Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) clients spread in the city of Lucknow and its neighboring markets.

The Big Blue is slated to spread its wings in 11 additional cities including Bhopal, Nashik, Nagpur, Surat, Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Vizag and Madurai; with Coimbatore and Goa already being operational. IBM envisions to set new standards of excellency through the newly opened centres which are state of the art.

Vivek Malhotra, VP - GSMB (North), IBM India, said: "Opening operations in Lucknow is a reflection of IBM's continued commitment to working closely with SMBs throughout India to empower them with world class technology and thus paving their way to success."

"SMBs play an integral role in sustaining India's growth story. Lucknow, with its inherent strengths of being the city with the lowest business running cost, will be an important market for IBM and this initiative from us will further cement our commitment to scale up the growth of Lucknow; thus making it emerge as an even stronger global market," Vivek added.

With over 3,000 SMB customers in India, IBM's operations in Lucknow will target various clients in the government, hospital management, banking, cooperatives, disaster recovery, research institutes and saree sectors among others.

As the fastest growing sector in IBM India, the Global Small & Medium Business (GSMB) unit is well equipped to address this growth and offer SMBs the solutions and technologies that are not only critical to their survival in the challenging Indian market but which will give them a competitive edge over others globally.

IBM's Technologies and Solutions for Indian small and mid-market businesses provide easy access to a portfolio of products and services along with enhanced support.

IBM has invested in the development of products and services specifically priced and designed for the SMB marketplace under the brand name 'IBM Express Portfolio'. IBM's Express portfolio is comprised of hardware, software, services, solutions and financing and is designed to meet specific criteria for SMBs which will provide them the requisite know-how to broaden their market base.

CIOL Bureau